Valley Book Fest

Celebrating Book Culture inWestern Massachusetts

The Connecticut River Valley in western Massachusetts is, in the words of the NY Times, “arguably the most author-saturated, book-cherishing, literature-celebrating place in the nation.” Writers and bookstores are only part of the riches of the Valley; it is also home to one of the country’s greatest concentrations of masters of the book arts, including binders, printers, and illustrators. The goal of the Valley Book Fest is to celebrate the heritage of the Valley, to recognize the makers for their contribution to the culture of the book, and to consider the future of the book arts in this special place.

The Festival will be a four-day immersion into the book culture of the Valley. There will be expert panels of makers, curators and collectors, master-level workshops, studio open houses, and visits to the archives of the Eric Carle Museum, The National Yiddish Book Center, the Mortimer Rare Book Collection at Smith, and University of Massachusetts Libraries.